(Art by Erik Wilson) Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of seven books: three novels—Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), as well as Transubstantiate (Otherworld Publications); three short story collections—Staring into the Abyss (Kraken Press), Herniated Roots (Snubnose Press), and Tribulations (Cemetery Dance); and one novella in The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). With over 150 stories published, his credits include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice), Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker winner), PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Shallow Creek, The Seven Deadliest, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad (numbers 2-4), PRISMS, Pantheon, and Shivers VI (with Stephen King and Peter Straub). He has won contests at ChiZine and One Buck Horror, has received five Pushcart Prize nominations, and has been long-listed for Best Horror of the Year six times. He was also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller awards. In his spare time he is a columnist at Lit Reactor. He was the Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press and Gamut Magazine. His agent is Paula Munier at Talcott Notch. For more information visit www.whatdoesnotkillme.com.

TODD KEISLING is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Devil’s Creek. His other works include The Final Reconciliation, Ugly Little Things: Collected Horrors, and The Monochrome Trilogy, among several shorter works. He lives somewhere in the wilds of Pennsylvania with his family where he is at work on his next novel.

Tim Waggoner has published nearly sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins, and his articles on writing have appeared in numerous publications. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, a one-time winner of the Scribe award, and he’s been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Splatterpunk Award. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio. His papers are collected by the University of Pittsburgh's Horror Studies Program.

Del Howison is an award-winning editor, journalist, fiction author and actor. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award four times (and won it once), for the Black Quill Award twice, for the Shirley Jackson Award and for the Rondo Hatton Award. Along with his wife Sue, he founded and has operated Dark Delicacies (America's Home of Horror) in Burbank for 17 years. His short story The Lost Herd was retitled The Sacrifice scripted by Mick Garris and directed by Breck Eisner and used as the premiere episode on NBC's anthology show Fear Itself. He has co-edited five books including all three of the Dark Delicacies anthologies, The Book of Lists Horror, and Midian Unmade. His nonfiction includes When Werewolves Attack from Jabberwocky. He also co-wrote (under the pseudonym of D. H. Atrial) Vampires Don't Sleep Alone with Elizabeth Barrial. His film acting appearences include Dahmer Vs Gacy, The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula, Blood Scarab, and The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisted.

Visit his website at www.darkdel.com

Kelli Owen is an American author, editor, reviewer, podcaster, and indie film producer, who has spoken at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA regarding both her writing and the field in general. While her nonfiction has appeared in various places—including the Bram Stoker Award-winner It's Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life—she is primarily known for her fiction.

As a member of both the Horror Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers, she has published over a dozen books, including THE HEADLESS BOY, TEETH, and WILTED LILY (a YA series). Her short fiction has appeared alongside Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Robert McCammon, F. Paul Wilson, and Josh Malerman, among others, and was in both Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthologies Arterial Bloom (2020) and Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road (2018).

A logophile from a young age, Kelli spent a decade as a reviewer and editor, while running a large genre website, before returning to her roots behind the keyboard. Born and raised in Wisconsin, she now lives in the dark woods of Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit her website at kelliowen.com

Robert Ford has written the novels Burner, The Compound, No Lipstick in Avalon, and Blood Roses, a horror-western. He also has a collection of his short fiction The God Beneath my Garden, a novella collection, Inner Demons, and the novella Larva Me Tender.

He collaborated, with John Boden, on the novellas Rattlesnake Kisses, Cattywampus, and Black Salve, in the Knucklebucket Thang series.

With author Matt Hayward, Robert co-wrote the novel A Penny for Your Thoughts.

Robert lives in Central Pennsylvania, and is usually hard at work on at least two projects at a time. You can find out more about his upcoming releases at www.robertfordauthor.com

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of many works including BEAUTIFUL SORROWS, PRETTY LITTLE DEAD GIRLS: A NOVEL OF MURDER AND WHIMSY (now available as a graphic novel with art by Orion Zangara), and the Stabby Award-winning APOCALYPTIC MONTESSA AND NUCLEAR LULU: A TALE OF ATOMIC LOVE.

She is a two-time Bram Stoker Award winner for her realistic horror novella LITTLE DEAD RED and her magical surrealism short story "Fracture." She was a Bram Stoker finalist for her short story "Loving You Darkly" and for her ARTERIAL BLOOM anthology, for which she was editor. Mercedes lives and creates in Las Vegas with her family and menagerie of battle-scarred, rescued animal familiars.

James Chambers is a Bram Stoker Award® and Scribe Award-winning author and a four-time Bram Stoker Award nominee. He is the author of the short story collections A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World, described as “stellar” by Publisher’s Weekly, On the Night Border and On the Hierophant Road, which received a starred review from Booklist, which called it “…satisfyingly unsettling”; the novella collection, The Engines of Sacrifice, and the novellas, The Devil in the Green, Kolchak and the Night Stalkers: The Faceless God, Three Chords of Chaos, and many others, as well as the original graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe. His short stories have appeared in anthologies and publications in multiple genres, including crime, fantasy, horror, pulp, science fiction, steampunk, and more. He edited the Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthologies, Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign and A New York State of Fright as well as Even in the Grave, an anthology of ghost stories. He has also written the comic books Leonard Nimoy's Primortals, "The Revenant" in Shadow House, and The Midnight Hour.

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous magazines and anthologies such as Weird Tales, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest Review, Year's Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others.

Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Point Park University, and a mentor with Crystal Lake Publishing. She is a recipient of the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant and has received the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for non-fiction writing.

Wytovich is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association, and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection, Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare, and most recently, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. Her debut novel, The Eighth, is published with Dark Regions Press.

Follow Wytovich at http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter and Instagram @SWytovich​ and @thehauntedbookshelf. You can also find her essays, nonfiction, and class offerings on LitReactor.

Joe Mynhardt stands as a paragon in the horror literary world, a Bram Stoker Award-winning South African publisher, editor, and mentor with over a decade of experience. As the founder and CEO of Crystal Lake Entertainment, Joe has transformed a humble 2012 startup into a multifaceted Intellectual Property powerhouse. Under his visionary leadership, Crystal Lake Publishing has become just one of the many thriving divisions of his company.

With a track record of working with and publishing works by luminaries such as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Charlaine Harris, Ramsey Campbell, John Connolly, Jack Ketchum, Jonathan Maberry, Christopher Golden, Graham Masterton, Damien Angelica Walters, Adam Nevill, Lisa Morton, Elizabeth Massie, Joe R. Lansdale, Edward Lee, Paul Tremblay, and Wes Craven, Joe is the quintessential mentor for aspiring horror authors. His deep industry insights and extensive network place him in a unique position to guide both new and seasoned writers in the genre.

Joe’s commitment to nurturing talent and fostering author careers is at the heart of Crystal Lake Entertainment’s ethos. His approach is not just about publishing books; it’s about building a community, sharing knowledge, and being a beacon of friendship and guidance in the often intimidating world of horror writing.

Since leaving his day job in 2016 to focus full-time on his passion, Joe has also excelled as a work-from-home dad, a role he embraced in 2018. His daughter, Cayleigh, named after his childhood influences Bruce Lee and Stan Lee, is a testament to his belief in the power of storytelling across all mediums. Joe’s love for great narratives extends beyond literature, encompassing comics, games, film, and television, with favorites ranging from Poe, Doyle, and Lovecraft to King, Connolly, and Gaiman.

Joe Mynhardt isn't just a figure in the horror industry—he's a driving force behind it, leading a successful online business that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of publishing. Discover more about Joe’s journey on Facebook or Patreon, where he continues to inspire and lead the next generation of horror storytellers.

Jessica is the author of "Reclaiming Femininity," "The Magic of Trees," "Homeschooling on a Budget," and more. She is a member of The Missouri Writer’s Guild, and currently writes for the "Right Side Broadcasting Network," "The Independent Journal Review," "Mid Rivers Newsmagazine," as well as "Witch Way Magazine." Her work has won 4 Missouri Writer’s Guild Awards, and countless others.

Publications that have featured Jessica Marie Baumgartner’s work: The Independent Journal Review, Mid Rivers Newsmagazine, Right Side Broadcasting Network, Sasee Magazine, Extremely American, Giant Freakin Robot,The Foundation for Economic Education, The Vermont Daily Chronicle, Edge of Humanity Magazine, The Conservative New Mexican, The Conservative Woman, Go 2 Tutors Education News, Missouri Conservationist, The Federalist, Aspire Magazine, All Things Weird & Strange, The Gonzo Press, The New American, The Epoch Times, The Sedona Journal of Emergence, American Thinker, Pagan Pages, Magic of Motivational Poetry and Quotes, Evie Magazine, Father and I, Woods Reader, Witch Way Magazine, Light of Consciousness Magazine, Breastfeeding Today, New Spirit Journal, Alban Lake Publishing, Conscious Shift Magazine, Witchology Magazine, LitReactor, Buddy Lit Zine, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, Kids Imagination Train Magazine, Mothers Always Write, It's Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life, Fantastic Tales of Terror: History's Darkest Secrets, The RAC Magazine, Bards & Sages, Aurora Wolf, Spaceports & Spidersilk, My Wandering Uterus, Guardian Angel Kids Ezine, The Society of Misfit Stories, FrostFire Worlds, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Teachers, Outposts of Beyond, Everyday Fiction, The Lorelei Signal, Circle Magazine, Yellow Mama, The Horror Zine, The Witches' Voice, Blood Moon Rising Magazine, Bewildering Stories, Spirit One Magazine, Fiction on the Web, Jitter Press, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine, Postcard Shorts, Hellfire Crossroads, and Quantum Muse and The St. Louis Examiner (where she used to be a staff member).

After graduating from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, Tim Chizmar has written for various magazines, newspapers and websites including Fangoria, First Comics News, and many others. He has sold short stories to such collections as Chicken Soup for the Soul and has written various screenplays for Hollywood production companies. Tim has been a proud member of various writers’ organizations including co-founding the Las Vegas Chapter of the prestigious Horror Writers Association.

Aside from the darker topics, it has not all been a career of terror as his lighter credits to date include ABC, FOX, Showtime, Comedy Central, Playboy, NBC, The Hallmark Channel, and many more. He has produced various pilots including in 2010 he developed a comedy/action series for CMT with wrestling superstar Rob Van Dam. As a headlining comedian Tim was a favorite at The World Famous Hollywood IMPROV, The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club, has toured all over the world playing sold-out casinos, clubs and colleges. To date he has worked with such standup legends as Jeff Foxworthy, Gabriel Iglesias, Jon Lovitz, Daniel Tosh, Brad Williams, and many others.

When he’s not inspiring fellow writers by being on various panels such as San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon, Scare LA, or speaking at Hollywood Success events, he's constantly working on his next project. Because for Tim Chizmar... There’s always a next project! After Tim had been successful enough to become a regular at red carpet premieres, he left all the glitz and glam behind in early 2017 for the mountains of Idaho as he completed his first full length books. He always looks forward to having frank, honest, and engaging discussions on the business of the writing craft with his fellow writers. Tim’s advice to young writers is this…

“Be inspired. Are you alive, or are you just breathing?”

Since its founding in August 2012, Crystal Lake Publishing has quickly become one of the world’s leading publishers of Dark Fiction and Horror books in print, eBook, and audio formats.

While we strive to present only the highest quality fiction and entertainment, we also endeavour to support authors along their writing journey. We offer our time and experience in non-fiction projects, as well as author mentoring and services, at competitive prices.

With several Bram Stoker Award wins and many other wins and nominations, Crystal Lake Publishing puts integrity, honor, and respect at the forefront of our publishing operations.

We strive for each book and outreach program we spearhead to not only entertain and touch or comment on issues that affect our readers, but also to strengthen and support the Dark Fiction field and its authors.

Not only do we find and publish authors we believe are destined for greatness, but we strive to work with men and woman who endeavour to be decent human beings who care more for others than themselves, while still being hard working, driven, and passionate artists and storytellers.

Crystal Lake Publishing is and will always be a beacon of what passion and dedication, combined with overwhelming teamwork and respect, can accomplish. We endeavour to know each and every one of our readers, while building personal relationships with our authors, reviewers, bloggers, podcasters, bookstores, and libraries.

We will be as trustworthy, forthright, and transparent as any business can be, while also keeping most of the headaches away from our authors, since it’s our job to solve the problems so they can stay in a creative mind. Which of course also means paying our authors.

We do not just publish books, we present to you worlds within your world, doors within your mind, from talented authors who sacrifice so much for a moment of your time.

There are some amazing small presses out there, and through collaboration and open forums we will continue to support other presses in the goal of helping authors and showing the world what quality small presses are capable of accomplishing. No one wins when a small press goes down, so we will always be there to support hardworking, legitimate presses and their authors. We don’t see Crystal Lake as the best press out there, but we will always strive to be the best, strive to be the most interactive and grateful, and even blessed press around. No matter what happens over time, we will also take our mission very seriously while appreciating where we are and enjoying the journey.

What do we offer our authors that they can’t do for themselves through self-publishing?

We are big supporters of self-publishing (especially hybrid publishing), if done with care, patience, and planning. However, not every author has the time or inclination to do market research, advertise, and set up book launch strategies. Although a lot of authors are successful in doing it all, strong small presses will always be there for the authors who just want to do what they do best: write.

What we offer is experience, industry knowledge, contacts and trust built up over years. And due to our strong brand and trusting fanbase, every Crystal Lake Publishing book comes with weight of respect. In time our fans begin to trust our judgment and will try a new author purely based on our support of said author.

To date we’ve published around 100 books, and with each launch we strive to fine-tune our approach, learn from our mistakes, and increase our reach. We continue to assure our authors that we’re here for them and that we’ll carry the weight of the launch and dealing with third parties while they focus on their strengths—be it writing, interviews, blogs, signings, etc.

We also offer several mentoring packages to authors that include knowledge and skills they can use in both traditional and self-publishing endeavours.

We look forward to launching many new careers.

This is what we believe in. What we stand for. This will be our legacy.

Welcome to Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

Michael Bailey is a recipient of the Bram Stoker Award (and nine-time nominee), a multiple recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award, a five-time Shirley Jackson Award nominee, and over thirty independent publishing accolades. He has authored numerous novels, novellas, novelettes, and fiction & poetry collections. Recent work includes AGATHA'S BARN, a tie-in novella to Josh Malerman’s CARPENTER'S FARM, a collaborative novella with Erinn L. Kemper called THE CALL OF THE VOID, and SIFTING THE ASHES, a collaborative a poetry collection with Marge Simon.

He runs the small press Written Backwards and has edited and published twelve anthologies, such as THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD, the CHIRAL MAD series, MISCREATIONS: GODS, MONSTROSITIES & OTHER HORRORS, and the critically-acclaimed YOU, HUMAN. He lives in Costa Rica where he is rebuilding his life after surviving one of the most catastrophic wildfires in California history, which is explored in his memoir SEVEN MINUTES.

RACHEL AUTUMN DEERING is an Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated writer, editor, and book designer from the hills of Appalachia. Her debut prose novella, HUSK, was published in 2016 and drew praise from critics and fellow writers alike. Her upcoming novel, Wytchwood Hollow, is set for publication in 2018.

She has also written, edited, lettered, designed, and published comics and short prose for DC/Vertigo Comics, Blizzard Entertainment, Dark Horse Comics, IDW, Cartoon Network, and more.

Deering is a rock 'n' roll witch with a heart of slime. She lives with a bunch of monster masks in the wild, wild midwest.

Marie O’Regan is an award-nominated author and editor, based in Derbyshire. She’s the author of a novel, Celeste (2022 Silver Shamrock Publishing); three collections: Mirror Mere (2006, Rainfall Books); In Times of Want (2016, Hersham Horror Books), and The Last Ghost and Other Stories, (2019, Luna Press), as well as a novella, Bury Them Deep (2017, Hersham Horror Books), and her short fiction has been published in genre magazines and anthologies in the UK, US, Canada, Italy, and Germany, including Best British Horror 2014, Great British Horror: Dark Satanic Mills (2017), and The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories (2108). She was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 2006, and Best Anthology in 2010 (Hellbound Hearts) and 2012 (Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women). She and her co-editor were also shortlisted for the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Anthology for Wonderland (Titan Books). Her genre journalism has appeared in magazines like The Dark Side, Rue Morgue and Fortean Times, and her interview book with prominent figures from the horror genre, Voices in the Dark, was released in 2011. An essay on “The Changeling” was published in PS Publishing’s Cinema Macabre, edited by Mark Morris. She is co-editor of the bestselling Hellbound Hearts, Mammoth Book of Body Horror, A Carnivàle of Horror – Dark Tales from the Fairground, Exit Wounds, Wonderland, Cursed and Trickster’s Treats #3, plus the editor of bestselling The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women and Phantoms. She is Co-Chair of the UK Chapter of the Horror Writers’ Association, and is also the Managing Editor of Absinthe Books, an imprint of PS Publishing.

Two-time international Bram Stoker Award-nominee®*, Greg Chapman is a horror author and artist based in Queensland, Australia.

Greg is the author of several novels, novellas and short stories, including his award-nominated debut novel, Hollow House (Omnium Gatherum) and collections, Vaudeville and Other Nightmares (Specul8 Publishing) and This Sublime Darkness and Other Dark Stories (Things in the Well Publications).

He is also a horror artist and his first graphic novel Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, (McFarland & Company) written by authors Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton, won the Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel category at the Bram Stoker Awards® in 2013.

He is also a former President of the Australasian Horror Writers Association.

Greg lives in Rockhampton with his wife and their two daughters.

* Superior Achievement in a First Novel for Hollow House (2016) and

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction, for “The Book of Last Words” (2019)

From the day she was born, Bram Stoker Award-winner and Shirley Jackson Award-nominee Jessica Landry has always been attracted to the darker things in life. Her fondest childhood memories include getting nightmares from the Goosebumps books, watching The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, and reiterating to her family that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her mental state.

Since then, Jessica’s fiction has appeared in many anthologies, including Aliens vs Predators: Ultimate Prey, Tales of the Lost, Twice-Told: A Collection of Doubles, Monsters of Any Kind, Where Nightmares Come From, Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road, and Fantastic Tales of Terror, which features her Bram Stoker Award-winning short story, "Mutter." Her debut collection, The Mother Wound, is set for release in 2023; and she's edited the anthologies, That Which Cannot Be Undone from Cracked Skull Press, and the multi-nominated, There Is No Death, There Are No Dead, co-edited with Aaron J. French, from Crystal Lake Publishing.

Find her online at jesslandry.com.

Bram Stoker Award®-winner Eugene Johnson is a bestselling editor, author and columnist. He has written as well as edited in various genres, and created anthologies such as the Fantastic Tales of Terror, Drive in Creature Feature with Charles Day, the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated nonfiction anthology Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre and many more. As a filmmaker, Eugene Johnson worked on various movies, including the upcoming Requiem, starring Tony Todd and directed by Paul Moore. His short film Leftovers, a collaboration with director Paul Moore, was featured at the Screamfest Film Festival in Los Angeles as well as Dragoncon. Eugene is currently a member of the Horror Writers Association. He is a person with disabilities being on the spectrum. Due to this he has a passion for using horror and storytelling as coping strategies to help others cope with their struggles. He resides in West Virginia with college sweetheart Angela, children and two cats.